Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Day 4:
After a day of rest, I still wasn’t ready to continue riding. I wanted to sleep some more but that wasn’t an option. We had about 90 miles to ride to the Higher Elm Farm Bed and Breakfast in Church Minshull from my grandparents’ house. We started the day with another visit to a care-home called the Brompton House. It was very nice and the residents were obviously in great hands. We met and talked with some of the residents and I was very impressed. We talked with a woman who turns 102 in September. She was incredible! She was very funny and very smart. It was such a pleasure to talk to her and all of the other residents. We also met a bed-ridden man with very severe Parkinson’s. Although it was sad to see him struggling with the disease, it showed us what we were riding for and gave me even more motivation to finish the ride. The ride that day was pretty uneventful. Our only complaint, as it was for the rest of the ride, was a headwind. We chose to go from the South to the North because the wind should have been at our backs. This wasn’t the case. When we got to Church Minshull and found the B&B (which was hidden down a dirt path without any signs pointing to it), we went down to the pub for dinner and watched the France vs. Uruguay World Cup game. We went to bed early that night because we had a long day ahead of us.
Day 5:
125 miles, a lot of it was uphill, and we had the extra weight of our stuff to lug around. Oh and did I mention the headwind? That’s what we had to ride through that day. Again, the day was pretty uneventful but it was very long. We started earlier in the morning, around 8:15, because we knew we had a long day ahead of us but we still didn’t arrive in Tebay, the town we were staying in, until past 9:00. At home, this wouldn’t be a problem because all the shops would still be open. England is different. Everything closes down early. After we got our bags up to our room, we went down to the pub to try and find some food and the lady at the bar said that the kitchen had closed a while before and that all the chefs had gone home. Even the fast food places in the highway rest stop had closed for the night. In the end, we had to go to the gas station and bought sandwiches, pasties, chips, chocolate, diet coke, and cereal and called that dinner. At that point, I didn’t care what I ate as long as I ate something. I was that hungry. During the day, when we stopped for lunch, the girl working at the bakery we stopped at gave us a 12 Pound or 18 dollar donation and some people who stopped to talk to us outside gave us 7 Pounds. It was a nice surprise that these random people who had just learned of our ride decided to donate and help us raise money for Parkinson’s research. That day was my first hundred mile ride and it felt good to join the club even though we were dead tired at the end.
Day 6:
This day was anything but uneventful. When we set off in the morning, we made the mistake of listening to the directions of the people at the B&B. They told us to go down the road and turn left to get to the A7, the road we were supposed to be on for the majority of the day. So we turned left. 40 miles later when we stopped for lunch, the man at the pub told us we were going the wrong way. We were headed for the A7 but the wrong part of it. When the people from the B&B told us to turn left, we should have turned right. By turning left, we went south…we were trying to go north. Oh and on the way, we went over a mountain that is categorized as one of Britain’s toughest climbs. Thanks people… At the end of the day, we didn’t get to where we were supposed to be and had to find a B&B with vacancies. We did make it over the England-Scotland border however and spent the night in an excellent B&B in a town called Canonbie. When we got to the B&B, the man offered to take our bags into our room for us so we could head off to find dinner in the 15 minutes we had before everything closed. Thankfully we found some food and didn’t have to go search for another gas station.
Day 7:
Although this day wasn’t our longest day, we experienced the worst headwind of the trip. As we were riding up the A9 towards Blairgowrie, the town where we would spend our second rest day, we were struggling, for the first two hours, to do 10 mph. The wind was miserable. It was constant and consistently strong for the entire time and we never found any protection from it. Also, being Scotland, it was hilly. There were some long climbs that we had to go up carrying all the weight of our bags and fighting against the headwind. At best the day was difficult. We were very pleased to see the B&B at the end of the day because it meant we could relax, watch some World Cup soccer, and have a day off. My mom and sister met us that night and stayed with us for the rest of the trip. During the rest day, one of the things we did was visit the Bell’s distillery. I could smell the whiskey from the parking lot. Unfortunately, the tours weren’t running because they were doing repairs in the distillery but my dad bought a bottle of whiskey that can only be bought at that distillery. I was also falling asleep the entire time. I spent both the car ride to the distillery and the ride back to Blairgowrie asleep. The ride was taking a lot out of me and I enjoyed finally being able to sleep for a longer amount of time than I could in previous days.
Day 8:
144 miles to Dornoch. This was our longest day. By the end of the day, we had also climbed 7117 feet. So our longest day also turned out to have the greatest amount of uphill of any other day. We certainly climbed some long hills throughout the day. At the top of one of the harder and longer climbs, my mom and sister drove up in the car behind us. It turned out that they had taken the same route we had. They said that for the whole car journey up until that point, they were hoping that my dad and I hadn’t taken the same route because of the hills. We stopped at the ski lodge at the top of the mountain we had just climbed for lunch and before we started again, we agreed that my mom and sister would follow the same route in the car that we would on the bike and would meet us at certain points along the way for the rest of the day. One of the highlights of the day came around the end. We passed directly under the bridge used by the Hogwarts Express in the second Harry Potter movie. It was an impressive bridge. We got some great pictures that I can put up on the blog for everyone to see. Fortunately, my mom and sister carried our baggage in the car so we didn’t have to lug them around on the longest and most uphill day. Both my dad and I relished the lack of weight. We wouldn’t have made it to the end of the day let alone the mountain before we stopped for lunch had we had to carry around our stuff. It would have been impossible. My mom said the mountains were hard enough to do in a car and my sister said her legs were burning just thinking about my dad and I climbing up these mountains. Luckily, the weather was perfect and we got to enjoy the ride. One of my personal favorites of the day was going faster on the down hills than was probably safe. Although it’s not the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike, both my dad and I were pushing mid 40s to 50 mph going down these hills. So much fun. Overall, the day turned out to be both hard and enjoyable.
Day 9:
The final day. 105ish miles to John O’ Groats. Once again, we had perfect weather, great conditions to end our trip. As we had done the day before, my mom and sister would carry our gear and would meet us at points along our ride (always 15-20 miles ahead to cheer us on). At one point during the day, there was a miserable headwind, so bad that I didn’t think I would be able to continue as I was already exhausted from the previous 8 days. Thankfully, it didn’t last for long. Along the way to John O’ Groats, we met some other cyclists doing the “Land’s End to John O’ Groats” ride and most of them were going the opposite way, with the wind that should have been going our way for the entire ride. Lucky them. Finally, the terrain started to level out and we were able to average 14.1 mph for the day, our best performance. Instead of going right up the east coast on the A9 which was the shortest route, we decided to go on quieter roads even though it lengthened out the ride. 20 miles from the finish, going along the northern coast, we finally found a tailwind. Finally! When we got to John O’ Groats, we didn’t even realize it. There wasn’t a “Welcome to John O’ Groats” sign and there was nothing around. The GPS, however, let us know we had arrived and directed us to the northern most point. We had completed our journey. We then immediately packed the bikes on the car and headed back to Blairgowrie to the B&B we had stayed in two nights before. Before we left, we met three guys who had also just completed the trip and they did it in 15 days. They were very impressed when we told them that we had completed it in 9 days. As you might expect, I spent the car ride back down to Blairgowrie passed out in the back seat. I was exhausted but I was happy to have completed the journey and raised so much money. Our total as of right now is over $7000!!!! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated.
After a day of rest, I still wasn’t ready to continue riding. I wanted to sleep some more but that wasn’t an option. We had about 90 miles to ride to the Higher Elm Farm Bed and Breakfast in Church Minshull from my grandparents’ house. We started the day with another visit to a care-home called the Brompton House. It was very nice and the residents were obviously in great hands. We met and talked with some of the residents and I was very impressed. We talked with a woman who turns 102 in September. She was incredible! She was very funny and very smart. It was such a pleasure to talk to her and all of the other residents. We also met a bed-ridden man with very severe Parkinson’s. Although it was sad to see him struggling with the disease, it showed us what we were riding for and gave me even more motivation to finish the ride. The ride that day was pretty uneventful. Our only complaint, as it was for the rest of the ride, was a headwind. We chose to go from the South to the North because the wind should have been at our backs. This wasn’t the case. When we got to Church Minshull and found the B&B (which was hidden down a dirt path without any signs pointing to it), we went down to the pub for dinner and watched the France vs. Uruguay World Cup game. We went to bed early that night because we had a long day ahead of us.
Day 5:
125 miles, a lot of it was uphill, and we had the extra weight of our stuff to lug around. Oh and did I mention the headwind? That’s what we had to ride through that day. Again, the day was pretty uneventful but it was very long. We started earlier in the morning, around 8:15, because we knew we had a long day ahead of us but we still didn’t arrive in Tebay, the town we were staying in, until past 9:00. At home, this wouldn’t be a problem because all the shops would still be open. England is different. Everything closes down early. After we got our bags up to our room, we went down to the pub to try and find some food and the lady at the bar said that the kitchen had closed a while before and that all the chefs had gone home. Even the fast food places in the highway rest stop had closed for the night. In the end, we had to go to the gas station and bought sandwiches, pasties, chips, chocolate, diet coke, and cereal and called that dinner. At that point, I didn’t care what I ate as long as I ate something. I was that hungry. During the day, when we stopped for lunch, the girl working at the bakery we stopped at gave us a 12 Pound or 18 dollar donation and some people who stopped to talk to us outside gave us 7 Pounds. It was a nice surprise that these random people who had just learned of our ride decided to donate and help us raise money for Parkinson’s research. That day was my first hundred mile ride and it felt good to join the club even though we were dead tired at the end.
Day 6:
This day was anything but uneventful. When we set off in the morning, we made the mistake of listening to the directions of the people at the B&B. They told us to go down the road and turn left to get to the A7, the road we were supposed to be on for the majority of the day. So we turned left. 40 miles later when we stopped for lunch, the man at the pub told us we were going the wrong way. We were headed for the A7 but the wrong part of it. When the people from the B&B told us to turn left, we should have turned right. By turning left, we went south…we were trying to go north. Oh and on the way, we went over a mountain that is categorized as one of Britain’s toughest climbs. Thanks people… At the end of the day, we didn’t get to where we were supposed to be and had to find a B&B with vacancies. We did make it over the England-Scotland border however and spent the night in an excellent B&B in a town called Canonbie. When we got to the B&B, the man offered to take our bags into our room for us so we could head off to find dinner in the 15 minutes we had before everything closed. Thankfully we found some food and didn’t have to go search for another gas station.
Day 7:
Although this day wasn’t our longest day, we experienced the worst headwind of the trip. As we were riding up the A9 towards Blairgowrie, the town where we would spend our second rest day, we were struggling, for the first two hours, to do 10 mph. The wind was miserable. It was constant and consistently strong for the entire time and we never found any protection from it. Also, being Scotland, it was hilly. There were some long climbs that we had to go up carrying all the weight of our bags and fighting against the headwind. At best the day was difficult. We were very pleased to see the B&B at the end of the day because it meant we could relax, watch some World Cup soccer, and have a day off. My mom and sister met us that night and stayed with us for the rest of the trip. During the rest day, one of the things we did was visit the Bell’s distillery. I could smell the whiskey from the parking lot. Unfortunately, the tours weren’t running because they were doing repairs in the distillery but my dad bought a bottle of whiskey that can only be bought at that distillery. I was also falling asleep the entire time. I spent both the car ride to the distillery and the ride back to Blairgowrie asleep. The ride was taking a lot out of me and I enjoyed finally being able to sleep for a longer amount of time than I could in previous days.
Day 8:
144 miles to Dornoch. This was our longest day. By the end of the day, we had also climbed 7117 feet. So our longest day also turned out to have the greatest amount of uphill of any other day. We certainly climbed some long hills throughout the day. At the top of one of the harder and longer climbs, my mom and sister drove up in the car behind us. It turned out that they had taken the same route we had. They said that for the whole car journey up until that point, they were hoping that my dad and I hadn’t taken the same route because of the hills. We stopped at the ski lodge at the top of the mountain we had just climbed for lunch and before we started again, we agreed that my mom and sister would follow the same route in the car that we would on the bike and would meet us at certain points along the way for the rest of the day. One of the highlights of the day came around the end. We passed directly under the bridge used by the Hogwarts Express in the second Harry Potter movie. It was an impressive bridge. We got some great pictures that I can put up on the blog for everyone to see. Fortunately, my mom and sister carried our baggage in the car so we didn’t have to lug them around on the longest and most uphill day. Both my dad and I relished the lack of weight. We wouldn’t have made it to the end of the day let alone the mountain before we stopped for lunch had we had to carry around our stuff. It would have been impossible. My mom said the mountains were hard enough to do in a car and my sister said her legs were burning just thinking about my dad and I climbing up these mountains. Luckily, the weather was perfect and we got to enjoy the ride. One of my personal favorites of the day was going faster on the down hills than was probably safe. Although it’s not the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike, both my dad and I were pushing mid 40s to 50 mph going down these hills. So much fun. Overall, the day turned out to be both hard and enjoyable.
Day 9:
The final day. 105ish miles to John O’ Groats. Once again, we had perfect weather, great conditions to end our trip. As we had done the day before, my mom and sister would carry our gear and would meet us at points along our ride (always 15-20 miles ahead to cheer us on). At one point during the day, there was a miserable headwind, so bad that I didn’t think I would be able to continue as I was already exhausted from the previous 8 days. Thankfully, it didn’t last for long. Along the way to John O’ Groats, we met some other cyclists doing the “Land’s End to John O’ Groats” ride and most of them were going the opposite way, with the wind that should have been going our way for the entire ride. Lucky them. Finally, the terrain started to level out and we were able to average 14.1 mph for the day, our best performance. Instead of going right up the east coast on the A9 which was the shortest route, we decided to go on quieter roads even though it lengthened out the ride. 20 miles from the finish, going along the northern coast, we finally found a tailwind. Finally! When we got to John O’ Groats, we didn’t even realize it. There wasn’t a “Welcome to John O’ Groats” sign and there was nothing around. The GPS, however, let us know we had arrived and directed us to the northern most point. We had completed our journey. We then immediately packed the bikes on the car and headed back to Blairgowrie to the B&B we had stayed in two nights before. Before we left, we met three guys who had also just completed the trip and they did it in 15 days. They were very impressed when we told them that we had completed it in 9 days. As you might expect, I spent the car ride back down to Blairgowrie passed out in the back seat. I was exhausted but I was happy to have completed the journey and raised so much money. Our total as of right now is over $7000!!!! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated.
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